UC San Diego AI Weekly · September 14, 2026

What's New in Your AI Tools

Zoom Slides turns a prompt into a full deck — Zoom has added AI-powered slide generation: describe what you need, or point Zoom at a Canvas doc or your meeting content, and it builds a complete presentation you can refine with built-in AI editing. Useful for turning a project Canvas and its meeting notes into a leadership-ready deck without opening a separate tool. Also new on Zoom's What's New page: Auto Writing drafts recurring recaps, reports, and proposals automatically after meetings you set up once.

Copilot adds Grok models from SpaceXAI — Microsoft continues its multi-model strategy: Grok models from SpaceXAI (xAI) are rolling into Copilot through the Microsoft Frontier Program, starting with a preview in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Access is managed by an admin setting that is off by default, and the preview is not available in the EU, EFTA, or UK. Worth knowing for anyone tracking data governance: SpaceXAI has been added to Microsoft's Online Services Subprocessor List, and data sent to Grok models is processed outside Microsoft's managed environments under xAI's terms rather than Microsoft's standard agreements. Nothing changes for campus users unless the feature is enabled at the tenant level.

Domain Exclusion is back after its August rollback — The feature that lets admins exclude up to 1,000 domains from Copilot's web grounding, abruptly pulled in early August, is available again as of September 9. If your department held off on configuring exclusions, the PowerShell-based setup is supported once more. Excluded domains are skipped at retrieval time, so their content cannot influence Copilot responses that use web search.

Copilot in SharePoint gains reusable skills with evaluations — Copilot in SharePoint now supports reusable skills that follow you across SharePoint and OneDrive, and it can measure and improve those skills: ask Copilot to improve a skill and it suggests tests, evaluation criteria, and targeted updates instead of you rewriting instructions and hoping. Copilot's chat cards are also more consistent across surfaces, which makes information, approvals, and available actions easier to act on.

The Gemini desktop app is now available for Windows — Gemini now has a native Windows desktop app alongside the web and mobile experiences. Workspace admins can turn the Gemini app on or off for their organization from the Admin console, so availability at work depends on your domain's settings.

Gemini can now create content, schedule events, and coordinate tasks across Workspace apps — New cross-app agentic capabilities powered by Workspace Intelligence are rolling out (the rollout began September 2): ask Gemini in Chat to assemble a Slides deck from your project context, draft and send an email without leaving Docs, turn a long Gmail thread into a structured document, or schedule a meeting that checks everyone's calendar — all without switching apps. Available for Business and Enterprise Standard and Plus editions.

New admin controls for Gemini Notebook — Google rolled out two governance pieces for Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM): admins can now choose among four external-sharing options for notebooks, and comprehensive Gemini Notebook audit logs are available in the Admin console, giving full visibility into notebook actions and data access through the security investigation tool. Relevant if your unit uses notebooks with campus or research material — note that notebook user data itself is stored globally and does not currently support data regionalization.

The Secret Life of LLMs: The Hidden World of Experts Shaping AI — Wednesday, September 16, 1–2 p.m. PT, virtual. The UC San Diego AI Alumni Council hosts leaders from Handshake AI and Databricks for a look at what happens after model training: who actually teaches and evaluates frontier models, and why human expertise has become one of AI's most valuable inputs. Registration required.

2026 AI and Healthy Aging Symposium — Thursday, September 24, 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. at Park & Market, hosted by the Stein Institute for Research on Aging. Keynotes from Noom's chief medical officer and UC San Diego's Amy Sitapati, plus expert panels on independent living, personalized healthcare, and using new technologies safely. Free to attend, but space is limited and registration is open now.

Bridging Biomedical Breakthroughs Summit: AI in Biomedical Innovation — Wednesday, November 4, 1–6:30 p.m. on the UC San Diego campus. The School of Biological Sciences' fourth summit brings together faculty innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and healthcare leaders to explore how AI is accelerating therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical imaging, with faculty innovation pitches and sessions on moving discovery toward real-world impact. Open to faculty, postdocs, students, and industry partners.

Self-paced options in the meantime:

Take the AI Foundations course to learn core AI concepts and UC policies on AI tools.
Watch the AI Webinar #6 recording — a practical walkthrough of TritonGPT's first year, including MyDocuments, model switching, and chat sharing.
Explore the Everyday I AI video series for short, practical prompting tips that work across TritonGPT and other AI tools.

First business data science bachelor's degree in the UC system launches at UC San Diego — The Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing and the Rady School of Management have launched a new interdisciplinary Business Data Science major, the first program of its kind in the UC system. Students combine data science fundamentals with business strategy, preparing for roles where turning analysis into decisions is the actual job — the same convergence between technical depth and real-world use that the campus AI program keeps proving out.

SDSC will test a new power architecture for AI data centers — The San Diego Supercomputer Center is the testbed for an $8.48 million California Energy Commission project that could change how AI data centers receive electricity. A bidirectional solid-state transformer converts medium-voltage grid power directly to the 800-volt DC that AI hardware needs — aiming to serve two megawatts of computing load while cutting the footprint of power equipment by more than 50% and achieving roughly 25% energy savings. The project pairs the hardware with AI workload-orchestration software so the data center can respond to grid conditions, and it includes a workforce pathway program connecting local residents to careers in data center and energy operations.

Department of Energy Genesis Mission award funds an AI scientist for physics and quantum computing — UC San Diego researchers will lead one of the Department of Energy's new Genesis Mission projects. A team led by physics professor Aobo Li will build SIDERIUS, an AI agent system that can analyze data, design AI models, and deploy them onto specialized chips for fundamental physics and quantum computing. UC San Diego researchers are also co-PIs on four additional Genesis projects, including ultra-fast AI tools for processing data from particle collisions at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

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